Reviews

Driving Impression

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The Focus handling is up there with the Mazda 3 and Volkswagen Golf; in fact they’re probably the three best handling compact cars. It’s agile, with electric steering that is crisp and nicely weighted, although it doesn’t offer much road feel.

The ride is impressive, with a sophisticated suspension that’s quite firm but not harsh over bumps and doesn’t gnash your teeth over big ones.

The base 2.0-liter engine with 160 horsepower and 146 pound-feet of torque has adequate acceleration, and the 6-speed dual clutch does a good job of keeping the revs up when you need them, but it doesn’t shift smoothly at low speeds. The shift quality of Ford’s PowerShift 6-speed dual-clutch automatic manual transmission is a letdown. So you’re left with a 5-speed manual.

We haven’t driven the 1.0-liter in the Focus, although we have in the lighter Fiesta. It makes 123 horsepower and an overachieving 148 pound-feet of torque at just 1400 rpm, to provide get-up-and-go from stoplights. It’s mated to either a 6-speed manual or 6-speed automatic transmission.

The S and SE models use drum brakes in the rear, while most rivals have four-wheel discs.

The ST, with its 240-horsepower turbocharged 2.0-liter engine and 6-speed manual gearbox, is very well engineered and integrated, with sharp and smooth driving dynamics that rival the Mazdaspeed3 or Subaru WRX STI. It uses a quick, variable-ratio steering rack, a suspension lowered by four-tenths of an inch, and rear dampers with widened mounting points. On a fun-to-drive scale of 1 to 10, it’s a solid 9.

The Focus RS is highly focused, with its 350 horsepower, extreme for a car this size. It has all the right mechanical and electronic structure behind that engine, including full-time all-wheel drive with dynamic torque vectoring, a beefy 6-speed gearbox, big brakes, tuned exhaust and suspension modes including Track and Drift. As an everyday driver, the ride is stiff and unyielding, it turns radically quick, and the torque steer is a handful to manage when you get on the gas. As a track car, it’s a dream.

Walk Around

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The Focus looks way better as a five-door hatchback than as a sedan. Even after eight years (although it was restyled for 2015), it’s on the far edge of swoop. Its creases and curves complement the wide-mouth grille. The rising window line adds drama, and the huge taillamps nicely frame the corners.

Focus ST and Focus RS are restrained, even with a lower stance, bigger wheels and lower bodywork. However there’s nothing restrained about the basket of logos stuck to the sheetmetal.

Interior Overview

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The Focus cabin was overstyled when it was new, and now that it’s eight years old it feels dated (thanks to Honda Civic’s reinvention of compact car interiors). The standard info screen is just 4.2 inches. The vertical vents and pleasant sculpting are complex and original, but the design makes the front feel cramped. And there’s a lot of plastic, although the seats and door trim are nicely tailored, especially the satin chrome in the top model Titanium.

The front seats are fairly supportive, even in the S and SE models. The plusher Titanium seats offer good thigh and back support, and a bit more bolstering. The expensive optional Recaro seats in the ST and RS are very snug, and don’t work for tall people.

The back seat is skimpy, with slim headroom and legroom. And with small door openings, ingress and egress is awkward. The hatchback is better than the sedan. The release to fold the rear seat can’t be reached through the hatch, and the headrests have to be removed to get the seatbacks all the way down.

The optional Sync 3 infotainment system is slicker and much improved over the previous unpopular MyFord Touch system. Sync 3 has a fully capacitive screen with pinching and swiping capability, a streamlined menu structure, smart-charging USB ports, and AppLink capability for on-screen operation of various smartphone apps. But Sync 3 also has issues. Response to the buttons is slow, and we had trouble switching between day and night modes on the touchscreen.

Forward visibility is good for a compact car, but rearward visibility not so good. However a rearview camera is standard, so the problem is hugely alleviated.

The Focus isn’t notably silent in the cabin, but neither is it noisy. Typical for a compact, coarse road surfaces transmit some noise.

Summary

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The Ford Focus hatchback still looks good after all these years, but the interior is dated. The Focus delivers agile handling and sharp steering, though the automatic transmission isn’t always smooth and the Sync 3 infotainment system isn’t always easy. The three-cylinder engine doesn’t quite carry the Focus’s weight, and isn’t so great with fuel mileage. The Focus ST is the champ in the competitive pocket-rocket field, enough to prove Ford’s engineering capability and carry the image of the whole line.

Sam Moses contributed to this review, with staff reports.

Model Lineup

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The 2017 Ford Focus S ($17,860) is reasonably well equipped, with power windows/locks/mirrors, air conditioning, Bluetooth, AM/FM/CD, adjustable steering wheel with controls, and rearview camera. The torque-vectoring system also comes standard on the front-wheel drive. (Prices are MSRP and do not include destination charge.)

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